iPod Touch and iPhone Slow Synching Problem Fixed
Since upgrading to the iPod 2.0 firmware and beginning to install Apps from the App Store synching on my iPod Touch has gotten slower and slower. The performance was so bad I was setting off a sync and going to bed !
Context & Ripple Effects
The fix lands weeks after Apple's July 2008 App Store launch turned the iPod Touch and iPhone from fixed-function devices into app platforms running the new 2.0 firmware — and syncing ground to a crawl as installed apps piled up. It is also not the first post-launch stumble for the Touch line: early units had display issues reported within days of release. The deeper story is that sync quality becomes a recurring pressure point as the installed base grows, resurfacing years later when Macworld argues it is time to right the iTunes syncing ship.
First-order effects
- iPod Touch and iPhone owners who upgraded to firmware 2.0 get usable sync times back overnight instead of leaving multi-hour syncs running; the bottleneck was in the sync process itself, not their hardware.
- Apple removes an immediate support burden from its first holiday season with the App Store, where every newly purchased app previously compounded sync time.
Second-order effects
- A fast, reliable sync becomes table stakes for the app-platform pitch: if installing dozens of apps makes backups painful, App Store spending — the revenue engine launched alongside this firmware — suffers, so sync engineering gets prioritized.
- Competitors building media-device ecosystems read the episode as evidence that desktop-sync architecture won't scale with app stores, pushing toward wireless and cloud-based transfer models.
Third-order effects
- The pattern here — a major OS update degrading existing devices until a follow-up patch — recurs across the platform's history, from the iPhone 3G under iOS 4 to the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 under later releases, making 'update then wait for the fix' a structural expectation rather than an anomaly.
- Sync friction ultimately pushes the ecosystem off the desktop cable entirely: as app libraries and media catalogs grow, local synching gives way to over-the-air and cloud delivery, changing what the PC means to an iPhone or iPod owner.
The trend: Each expansion of the iOS platform strains the PC-era sync model until Apple patches or replaces it — one data point in the long migration from cable-based iTunes syncing to wireless and cloud delivery.